Israeli forces confiscate tractor from Palestinian farmer near Nablus

NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces on Tuesday confiscated a tractor belonging to a Palestinian farmer in the southern Nablus village of Aqraba in the occupied West Bank, security sources said.

Palestinian security sources told Ma’an that Mahir Faris Abd al-Rahman Bani Fadil was plowing his land between Aqraba and al-Majdal when Israeli soldiers stormed the area and confiscated his tractor.

A spokesperson for Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) told Ma'an: "By its legal authorities, the Civil Administration seized the device since illegal works for cultivating State Lands were carried out next to Aqraba."

Aqraba is surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements to the north, east, and south, where much of the village’s residents’ farmland lies in Area C under full Israeli military control.

The illegal settlement of Migdalim lies to the south of Aqraba, where Fadil was reportedly tending his farmland before his tractor was confiscated.

Israeli authorities typically confiscate equipment from Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on the grounds the equipment was used to carry out illegal work in Area C, despite the fact that such approval is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.